Filters

Pool Filters

Pools & Spas Service, Inc. has multiple options available to improve your pool’s filtration system. We highly recommend the Pentair “SandDollar ”™ filter which has a very efficient filtering system, long life-expectancy, and is easy to use and maintains clear and clean pool water.

Below is a quick overview regarding pool filtration. Please use at a reference point when discussing your new pool filter with one of our trained pool specialists:

There is a lot of confusion about various filters, and many different opinions. Here are a few facts to consider. The first is that a pool can be properly maintained with any of the filter systems available: Sand, Cartridge, or Diatomaceous Earth (DE). Here is a brief description of each type:

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Pentair Sand Dollar Filter – Sand – The bullet proof filter
Water is pushed through a bed of filter sand and removed through a set of lateral tubes at the bottom. The filter area of a sand filter is equal to the area of the filter itself. For example, a 24” filter will have 3.14 sqft of filter area. Only the top 1” of sand is actually used to filter the water. The principle behind this filter is that water is pushed through the filter sand, somewhat like an espresso machine. Dirty water goes in the top and clean water exits out the bottom. As the filter sand becomes plugged with debris from the pool, the pressure increases on the filter and the water flow drops. In order to clean the filter, you just run it in reverse and dump the waste water; this is referred to as “backwashing” the filter. Once the filter is backwashed, you move to the rinse mode and that repacks the sand and then back to filter. This has to be done manually every few weeks.

Filter Elements – The economic low maintenance filter.
This one is easy to understand. Water passes though a filter material and the filter captures the debris. This is just like the water filters used under your sink. Cartridges have much more available area to filter than sand. Most start at 100 sqft and the majority of the cartridge filters sold are larger than 300 sqft. So they don’t clog up as quickly and therefore you touch them less frequently. There are two types of cartridge filters in general. In the first case, there are filters elements that are inexpensive to replace and as such, they don’t tend to last as long. Then there are other filters that have very expensive elements and these last 5 or more years. In both cases.

DE – The water polisher.
They are used to coat “grids” in the filter housing and act as tiny sieves to remove debris. They are very small and as such can filter out particles as small as 5 microns. Once the filter pressure rises, the filter is backwashed just like a sand filter and then “recharged” with more DE powder. Typically it is poured slowly into the skimmer and it then coats the filter grids. DE filters run at higher pressures than cartridge filters and as such can lead to some inefficiency and flow loss. These Diatamatious filter grids are required to be removed from the filter, hosed clean and reinstalled back into the filter several times per season.